companies include Air France, KLM, Transavia, Ryanair, Vueling, Lufthansa, Emirates, Royal Air Maroc, Tunisair, Air Algerie and TAP Air Portugal.
The French association of consumers UFC-que choisir announced on Tuesday that it assigned justice 20 airlines to allow passengers whose flight has been cancelled have the right to choose between a refund and a credit.
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The european legislation provides that in the event of cancellation, the passenger must be offered a new route, or a refund. This latter is the rule, and may take the form of a credit, but only with the agreement of the consumer, recalled last week the european Commission.
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Gold “some companies are misleading customers into thinking that the particular situation of a pandemic would allow them to only submit a purchase order. Others accept to reimburse their passengers but to suspend the payment until an undetermined date, or even after the end of the health crisis,” says UFC-que choisir.
The association, which had challenged 57 companies in April, has finally decided to assign 20, “the key”, she says, in “termination of the wrongdoing” in front of the judicial court of Paris. The companies targeted are Air France, KLM, Transavia, Ryanair, Vueling, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Royal Air Maroc, Tunisair, Air Algerie and TAP Air Portugal but also Volotea, Air Caribbean, Norwegian, Air Austral, Air Europa, Air Corsica, Corsair and Air Transat.
Funds
a hearing date has not been set at this stage. The association stated that it “does not solicit, for the moment, damages, and interests,” but “just wish that the companies (…) to respect the rights of consumers” to be able to choose. “Passengers do not have the vocation to be the financial airlines, there are banks for this,” said Raphael Bartlomé, head of the legal service of the UFC-que choisir.
Made to knee in the judgment of global traffic, the airlines are defending saying of “liquidity constraints and unprecedented”, according to A4E, their main european association. For A4E, unused tickets represent 9.2 billion euros until the end of may.
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“It is necessary that everyone understands that we had to react in a situation completely unprecedented and, therefore, it is necessary to invent mechanisms,” responded Tuesday on BFMTV the secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari. “Maybe in the future it will be necessary to create a compensation fund for travellers directly driven by a european entity to protect passengers the european”, he estimated.